BP #2 – Hate Crimes (Revised)

It was reported that a high school in Cincinnati was vandalized with swastika symbols and Trump’s name. A mother of an athletic student attending his final year there was angered to see racist and homophobic graffiti around the grounds. She is scared that the new President has made people comfortable about sharing their racist views.

Hate crimes do happen but there have been more recent reports of this happening around the country. In California, a mosque’s windows were broken in with damaged bicycles outside and strips of bacon on the door handle.

Incidents like these are unethical and hurtful to our nation. This country is made up of a mix of different people and it’s unfair to act against or hate based on race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc. Behaving in heinous acts such as hate crimes shows no sign of civility, or interest in living as a member of society and the laws we arrange our society around.

I would argue that offenders of hate crimes have no moral standards. Aristotle explains there are two kinds of virtues for a person and those are moral virtues such as kindness or empathy, and intellectual virtues such as rationality.

Actions of hate and disturbance to the community don’t correspond with either virtues. Threats towards people who are different or even defacing property is done with no rational explanation. Committers of hate crimes are not acting in proper relation to their emotions of anger.

Aristotle believes that virtues are more than just skills but we can improve upon them with proper practice. A solution to feelings of anger towards certain types of people would be to get to know someone who is different from you. This can improve empathy and hopefully change the way people can see others.